Rider University Newton N. Minow speech about television discussion should be a minimum of 1000 words – approximately 3-4 typed pages. Each post should be

Rider University Newton N. Minow speech about television discussion should be a minimum of 1000 words – approximately 3-4 typed pages. Each post should be thoughtful, clear and be concisely and effectively focused on the specific questions being asked. What you write for your Essays must clearly reflect that you have done the readings and must include at least 2 specific references to your text. Be sure to use quotes when necessary. Be sure to refer to a specific page number when referencing your book. In addition, you are required to have a minimum of two additional references from something other than your text. This must be relevant research from quality sources – NO WIKIPEDIA or other encyclopedic references!!! Be sure to clearly and specifically cite the source of this outside information. Include web links to online articles. Part 1 Electronic Media Forms
96
ZOOM IN: Still a Wasteland?
20
Here are some other excerpts from Newton
Minow’s 1961 speech. How do you think they
apply (or don’t apply) to television today?
without precedent in mankind’s tratory,
mentation, not conformity, entence
mediocrity,
The power of instantaneous night and sound
is an awesome power. It has limitiene capable
ties for good and for evil. And it carries with
it awesome responsibilities-responsibilities
which you and I cannot escape.
When television is good, nothing—not the the
ater, not the magazines or newspapers– noth-
ing is better. But when television is bad, nothing
is worse.
You will see a procession of game shows, vio-
lence, sadism, murder, western badmen, western
good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence
and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials
many screaming, cajoling, and offending.
It is not enough to cater to the nation’s whims
you must also serve the nation’s needs. If some
of you persist in a relentless search for the
highest rating and the lowest common denomi-
nator, you may well lose your audience.
I am unalterably opposed to government cen-
sorship. There will be no suppression of pro-
gramming that does not meet with bureaucratic
tastes.
We need imagination in programming, not
sterility; creativity, not imitation; experi-
Newton Minow.
seemed favorable toward broadcasting, startled his audience with the following
words:
Minow’s speech
I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes
on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss
sheet
, or rating book to distract you-and keep your eyes glued to that set until
the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland.
The term vast wasteland caught on as a metaphor for television programming
(see “Zoom In” box). The executives were not happy with Minow’s
phrase.
During the early 1960s, the dominant fare on TV was violence. The original
versions of such programs as The Untouchables, Route 66, and The Roaring 20s all
featured murders, jailbreaks, robberies, kidnappings, and blackmail. Saturday mem
violence
ing children’s programming was also replete with violent cartoons. A surge against
violence, aided by Minow’s challenge, spurred a shift to shows about doctors, such
covered by the media, as was the 1968 Democratic
convention in Chicago, where youths outside the
convention hall protested the nomination of Hu-
bert Humphrey. The media became embroiled in
the controversy. On the one hand, they were ac-
cused of inciting the riot conditions because the
demonstrators seemed to be trying to attract media
coverage. On the other hand, many people inside
the convention hall learned of the protest by seeing
it on a TV monitor and might not otherwise have
Exhibit 4.15
Walter Cronkite visiting Vietnam.
known of this show of discontent.22
4.11 A Vast Wasteland?
In 1961, Newton Minow, Kennedy’s appointee as chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission, spoke before the annual convention of the
National Association of Broadcasters. During his speech, Minow, who had
Chapter 4 Brondes Television
De Aar, and more comedies, such as The
Dal Shows Gilligan’s Island, The Beverly
Wides and Hogwn’s Hewes (see Exhibit 4.16).
During the 1960s, old Hollywood movies es
tablished themselves on TV (see Chapter 6). In
1901, NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies began
a prime time movie trend that, by 1968, saw mov.
es every night of the week. This rapidly depleted
Hollywood’s supply of old films, and some of the
low-quality films that made it onto the airwaves
enhanced the vast wasteland theory. In 1966, NBC
made a deal with Universal to provide movies that
were specially made for television and would not
appear in theaters first. This concept caught on,
a regular basis.
and by 1969, all three networks had made-fors on
Exhibit 4.16
Also during the 1960s, the number of local
stations that were on the air grew. Most cities had
Hogan’s Heroes, a comedy set in a World War II
prisoner-of-war camp, was on CBS from 1965 to
more than three stations, and because there were
1971.
only three networks, some of the stations, referred
to as independents, did not have a network to feed
movies
them programming. Although some of these stations produced their own pro-
gramming, most of them bought the bulk of it from syndicators-companies
that had started businesses to provide programming for these stations. Syndi- local station fare
cated programs were sent to stations on tape, and they could air them whenever
they wanted. By this time the U.S. television industry had discovered the value
of the rerun, so much of what the syndication companies provided was reruns of
programs that had been on one of the networks. They also provided packages of
older movies, often giving them a theme-such as horror movies or Cary Grant
movies. This type of programming fare gave Minow further fuel for his “vast
wasteland comment.
24
4.12 The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
Meanwhile
, educational broadcasting was undergoing its own transformation.
The Ford Foundation, feeling that it was shouldering too much of the support
for educational television, cut back on funding. A number of organizations and
councils appeared and disappeared, trying to solve the financial problems, but the
result was a lack of focus and political infighting.
The Carnegie Foundation finally came to the rescue by setting up the Carn Carnegie
egie Commission on Educational Television. This group of highly respected
citizens spent two years studying the technical, organizational, financial, and
programming aspects of educational television and in 1967 published its report.
The commission changed the term educational television to public television to
overcome the pedantie image the stations had acquired. It also recommended
that a well-financed and well-directed system, substantially larger and far more

Purchase answer to see full
attachment